’ aname, if not also a 
now become distinguished under its sovereign Tynda- 
= reus, whose sons Castor and Pollux died in the prime 
of life, and whose daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen, 
were given in marriage to Agamemnon and his brother 
Menelaus. Through these princesses, the domains of 
ne fell to two sons of Atreus; and Mene- 
y - laus was invested with the immediate command of the 
- Of the provinces without the peninsula, Thessaly 
next to Crete, the most ancient scene of Grecian story,) 
became celebrated for the wisdom of its princes, 
who extended their sway at an early period as far as 
the Corinthian Isthmus. In that country, always fa- 
mous for its horses, the Centaurs were first known, who 
are supposed to have been a band of foreign adventu- 
rers of superior attainments to the more southern Greeks 
of their time. From a port in Thessaly, sailed the ex- 
pedition of the Argonauts under Jason, who may be 
considered as merely the leader of one of the most ‘con- 
_ siderable piratical expeditions, which had hitherto been 
un en. Beeotia, though a country originally subject 
to earthquakes and ‘sinmaatides, erweatin great ferti- 
lity, attracted at an early period the attention of ad- 
venturers; and a Phenician colony under Cadmus is 
 oxeaoe to have founded its principal city of Thebes. 
numerous fabulous stories relating to its history, 
» comprehending the adventures of Bacchus, Amphion, 
Amphitryon, Hercules, Laius, C2dipus, Eteocles, and 
Polynices, serve at least to prove that it must soon have 
become a flourishing and powerful state; and the war, 
. which it sustained against seven united potentates, the 
subject of the Thebaid by Statius, presents the first in- 
stance of a political league, and a regular warfare, re- 
corded in the annals of Greece. /Etolia, though not in- 
ferior to the adjoining countries in early civilization, 
ta ugh sufficiently celebrated in the histories of its 
es Tydeus, Meleager, and others; yet, from the 
'« dangers of its seas, being much excluded from the in- 
tercourse of more civilized nations, made little compa- 
“rative p in political improvement, and, for seve- 
ral-centuries even after the Trojan war, had little com- 
munication with the rest of ce. Phocis, Doris, 
xis, &c, and Locris, alse afford no materials for history at this 
5 earl: 
ly period ; and the only remaining state, whose ori- 
gin is worthy of ye narrated from tradition, is that 
of Attica. The first king of this country is said by 
some to have been Osyges, whose name, however, is 
not mentioned by the older Greek historians, and who 
is conjectured at the utmost to have been only the lead- 
r 
? 
_* erof a band of Beeotians ; who, having been driven from 
their own country by an inundation, had taken refuge 
in the adjoining districts of Attica. The first, at least, 
y lak regular government and the arts of ci- 
vilization among the Athenians, was Cecrops, the lead- 
er of a colony from Egypt, who introduced the worship 
of the god Athena, or Minerva; and thus gave 
beginning, to the city of Athens. 
y is consid we: the founder of the celebrated court 
of Areopagus ; d, in consequence of his wise institu- 
tions, aided by the natural security of the country from 
invasion, strangers were attracted, population increased, 
and civilization made more rapid progress than in any 
other province of Greece. Of his successors, little is 
recorded even by tradition, till the time of /Egeus, con- 
meeporary with Minos, King of Crete, and the father 
of the renowned Theseus, whose romantic history bears 
no inconsiderable resemblance to that of the Gothic 
nts, and whose wise measures as king of 
-_ Athens laid the foundation of its future greatness. By 
3 
GREECE, 
461 
the united influence of persuasion and authority, he  Greete 
consolidated, in one well-regulated government, the ine "Y—"” 
dependent districts in Attica, and endeavoured to se- 
cure the stability of his improvements, by procurin 
the approbation of the Delphic oracle. Though we 
entitled, by his political regulations, to be ranked among 
the most illustrious patriots of ancient times, he is ne- 
vertheless represented, in his future history, as having 
forfeited the esteem of his subjects, and having at last 
died in exile. After him, the sovereignty of Attica was 
held by Menestheus, a descendant of the royal family, 
and the leader of the Athenian troopsin the Trojan war. 
These petty states, each of which was 
its respective sovereign, and all of them inde 
one another, were continually at war among themselves, 
and exposed to the incursions of foreign barbarians. To 
obviate these evils, and to secure, as far as possible, the 
general tranquillity, an assembly was formed of depu- 
ties from the different countries of Greece, whose bu~ 
siness it was to decide all disputes between the states 
of which the association was composed, and to concert 
measures of defence. against their common enemies. 
This was called the council of the Amphictyons, from 
its supposed founder Amphictyon, one of the sons 
of Deucalion, and king of Attica; but its original con- 
stitution, and the period of its commencement, cannot 
be satisfactorily ascertained. It is supposed by Sir 
Isaac Newton to have commenced about a century bes 
fore the Trojan war. Besides its primary object of 
establishing a kind of national law among the Greeks, 
its attention was principally occupied in managing the 
concerns of the Delphian oracle. But, though its des 
crees were respected, its power was not very efficacious, 
It contributed to restrain the violence of wars, but was 
not able to prevent their frequent occurrence. It de- 
rived its greatest consequence from the increasing fame 
of the oracle at Delphi; and the superintendence of 
the religious institutions of Greece became ultimately 
its principal office. It is not mentioned by Homer ; but 
its existence seems to be implied in the ready union of 
the Grecian states against Troy. See Ampnictyons, 
Capmus, &c. 
Frequent piratical excursions appear to have been Oxgin of 
carried on between the inhabitants of the eastern and the Trojan 
western coasts of the AEgean Sea; and the rape of Helen ¥** 
by Paris the son of Priam may be considered, accord- 
ing to Herodotus, as an act of retaliation for some si- 
milar injury received from the Greeks by the Trojan 
poets. An outrage, however, so nearly affecting one 
of greatest princes of Greece, and aggravated by 
a breach of the rights of hospitality, was considered as 
demanding the united vengeance of the Grecian chiefs; 
and the hope of returning home enriched with the 
ils of Asia, presented no small incentive to the expe- 
dition, The extensive influence also of Agamemnon 
king of Argos, and brother of the injured Menelaus, 
urged on the general confederacy ; and, under his su- 
preme command, the chosen warriors of every Grecian 
state, from the southern extremity of Pel esus to 
the northern regions of Thessaly, assembled at the port 
of Aulis in Beeotia. The fleet, consisting of 1200 open 
vessels, conveyed to the Trojan coast, an army of 
100,000 men, who speedily compelled the enemy to 
_ take refuge within the walls of their city ; but, unable 
to surmount its strong and well defended fortifications, 
they attempted its reduction by-excluding every kind 
of succour and supplies. Obliged, however, to detach 
large bodies from their army to procure subsistence for 
themselves, they were unable to prevent the Trojans 
verned by Council of 
dent of the Am- 
